Dear Students and Friends of the Esoteric Teaching:
Well, we’re back after our spring vacation. The last few weeks have been a difficult time. I was experiencing a very heavy astrological transit known as Saturn Return. The recent Saturn retrograde came right up to Saturn’s natal position in my chart, and just sort of sat there for about a month straight.
Sometimes it takes difficult times to help you see what you’re really doing. In this case, I got some perspective on relationships—since Saturn is in my fifth house—and got to see how I’ve grown and matured in handling difficult situations and people. Still, Saturn return is never much fun, but as Nietzsche was famous for saying, “If it doesn’t kill you, it just makes you stronger.”
You might find it interesting to hear about some of the insights that have come from this experience. For example, I am now much clearer about why I am a spiritual teacher. Devotees just naturally preach because we’re excited and pleased by our devotional service. And my spiritual master Srila Prabhupada personally instructed me to preach in just the way I am doing.
But more than that, I have had some uncommon spiritual experiences, and I would like to share these with as many people as possible, because I believe that they are very significant and valuable. Astrologically, my Mars is situated in its exact degree of exaltation, a position that normally leads to one becoming extremely wealthy. I had an opportunity to become one of the influential players in the personal computer software scene. However, I passed that up in favor of becoming a Vaiṣṇava monk and spending years in India studying the Esoteric Teaching.
Years later, I retired from active life into an experience of deep meditation. I camped out in an isolated location in the island of Kauai, and just chanted the Holy Name of the Lord, night and day. For about six months, my only activities were eating, sleeping, walking and chanting the Holy Name about eight hours a day. My intention was to provoke some special spiritual experience that would complete my attempt to become self-realized.
Near the end of this experience, something extraordinary happened. I don’t want to go into too much detail, because without an advanced background in the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedic scriptures, most people would misunderstand. You would have to be an Initiate of the Esoteric Teaching and study Srimad-Bhagavatam very carefully to understand. But this experience, and similar ones over the next couple of years, convinced me that I had reached my goal. At this time, I am more convinced than ever that this is the case.
Externally, I am just an ordinary person, just an average-looking older man living in a little cabin in the woods. If you meet me in person, you will not be very impressed. There is absolutely nothing special about me from the outside. But if you could see the inside, you would be amazed. My inner life and consciousness are totally different from my recollection of what they were even a few years ago. It is not an exaggeration to say that I live in two different worlds: the ordinary material world, and the spiritual world of the Esoteric Teaching.
The impact that this has had on my personal life is extremely profound. I am no longer disturbed, but feel very peaceful. I used to always look forward to the future; now I feel very satisfied and content with the present. Strangely, at first this felt like something was missing. I soon realized that what I was missing from my inner landscape it was simply the agitation of material desire and fear.
I do not crave anything of this world, because the spiritual world stands revealed to me in all its beauty and glory. I no longer crave love and approval from people, because I have them in infinite quantity directly from God Himself. When I speak in these online classes about God being a person, it is not theory, but an everyday reality to me.
I wish there were words in English to express what I feel, but there aren’t. You have to study the Esoteric Teaching pretty deeply to understand what I am really talking about here. When I used to look inside or try to meditate, I would see only darkness. Now I experience a whole spiritual world of ever-increasing beauty, wonder and ecstatic love.
So my astrological chart is correct; I am indeed very wealthy, but my wealth is spiritual, not material. When one is very wealthy, the right thing to do is to give it to deserving people in the form of charity. I am trying to do something similar by sharing my knowledge in the Esoteric Teaching series podcasts. We also make this information available in the form of books and CDs on our website, esotericteaching.org.
My commitment to you is that I only discuss things in these talks that I have personally understood and realized. The Esoteric Teaching is not theory, and not really philosophy, but a guide to a powerful spiritual practice that yields tremendous results. The philosophy is really just to convince to you take up the practice, because that’s the only way you can experience the great benefits of this Teaching.
So in the next few podcasts we’ll take up our detailed study of the Bhagavad-gita, right from where we left off. I’m taking so much time and effort to introduce you to the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita because it is the cornerstone of the Esoteric Teaching. If you learn Bhagavad-gita well, you will be able to master everything very easily. Just like playing a musical instrument well demands mastery of the basics; success in the practice of the Esoteric Teaching requires complete understanding of Bhagavad-gita.
But we will also spend more time talking personally like this, and hearing some of the transcendental music tracks I composed. We’ll also preview new tracks here, so stay tuned. Speaking of which, I’d like to end off today’s podcast with a track entitled “Friend of the Heart.” This is my single largest-selling download on iTunes.com. Enjoy!
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